train must inform the guard of the Lymington train when they desire to be put down at the platform. By the down trains passengers must have tickets for Lymington. By the up trains passengers must take tickets at Brockenhurst paying in addition the fare from Lymington.”

This may well have been the first example of a halt platform on a British railway, although the term “halt" originated in the railmotor era, about 1904. Unusual features of Shirley Holmes were that its name never appeared on a ticket, nor was it mentioned in the time- tables, public or working, of the L.S.W.R. Sway Station on the new line to Bournemouth was opened in 1888, and with improved road communications use of the platform gradually lapsed, and it was closed to passengers soon after the turn of the century. For many years it was used for permanent way materials, but there is now little trace of it.
Nearly twenty years elapsed before the next event of any importance took place, and this was foreshadowed at the first half-yearly meeting of the L.S.W.R. in 1878 when the report stated: " The directors under powers already granted by Parliament have agreed with the Lymington Railway for the absolute purchase of their railway and works, which have been worked by the Company exclusively since completion in 1858. The dividend paid by the Lymington Railway Company for 1877 was 3 1/2 per cent." The Lymington Railway was formally vested in the L.S.W.R. on March 21, 1879. For many years the connection from the Town Station to the Isle of Wight steamers had been unsatisfactory. In the early days of the railway the ferry boats frequently had to tie up alongside a cargo boat, and passengers clambered over planks on embarkation, a tedious business. Lymington was a prosperous port then, with vessels from the U.S.A. and Norway bringing shipments of timber, while coastal ships brought coal from Sunderland and slates from Portmadoc. In 1859, work commenced on the railway jetty which was intended to still passenger's complaints. It was opened on June 1, 1861, but was very inconveniently situated for railway passengers, necessitating a long walk, and early fears that it could not be used at all states of the tide were soon confirmed.
The L.S.W.R. decided to build a pier,

with an extension of the railway line for half a mile to bring trains alongside the vessels. This extension was opened on May 1, 1884, the first passenger train to use it being the 8.30 a.m. from Lymington Town. There were no formalities, unless the explosion of a few detonators can be so described. With the opening of the railway pier, the Solent Steam Packet Company, which had hitherto been responsible for the ferry service to the Isle of Wight, approached the L.S.W.R. with the request that the railway company should take over the steamship services. This transfer took place in July, I884, the L.S.W.R. purchasing the paddle steamers Solent and Mayflower for £2,750. There have been several schemes for a Solent Tunnel over the years, of which the South Western & Isle of Wight Junction Railway, proposed in 1901, was one of the most important. This was to consist of a railway line deviating from the branch about 1 1/2 miles north of Lymington Town, and running four miles to a point on Keyhaven Marshes, where it entered the tunnel, which was to have been 24) miles long with 1 in 40 gradients at each end. Emerging from the tunnel the line was to continue for a further three quarters of a mile to join the Fresh- water, Yarmouth & Newport Railway at a junction facing Yarmouth and Newport, while a short spur line made a facing connection towards Freshwater. Had this scheme materialised it would considerably have increased the importance of the Lymington Railway. In fact, however, the reverse was the case, for the Southern Railway tended towards a policy of concentrating Isle of Wight traffic on the Portsmouth-Ryde route, so reducing the importance of the Lymington route.
In 1905, Lymington was the scene of an early experiment with railway owned motor buses. On July 19, the L.S.W.R. inaugurated a service between Lymington, Milford-on-Sea and New Milton, operated by steam buses built by Clarkson of Chelmsford. These buses did not steam well until fitted with patent water tube boilers early in 1906. Moreover the local roads were totally unsuited to them at that time, and they sank into the mud so often that more substantial tyres had to be fitted. The service was withdrawn on September 15. 1906, and the two buses allocated to Lymington were transferred

to the Exeter-Chagford service. Although not successful at the time, the L.S.W.R. anticipated by several years the present road services in the district, operated by the Hants & Dorset Company.
The last development of the Lymington line before the 1923 grouping was in the introduction of pull-and-push trains. The L.S.W.R. had been first in the field with steam railmotors in 1903, followed by motor trains worked by engines of railmotor type in 1906. In 1915, a number of the smaller bogie tank engines were converted for pull-and-push working, and engines of this type, of Adams and Drummond design, appeared on the Lymington services about 1920 and subsequently. The old L.S.W.R. system of motor train working, which involved a complicated set of wires and pulleys running across the top of the trains, gave way after grouping to the former L.B.S.C.R. system of air control. This was introduced on the Lymington branch in July, 1930, with Drummond 0-4-4 tank engines. Apart from the school train and certain summer Saturday workings, these engines are still responsible for all passenger trains on the branch.
The Lymington branch is 4 1/2 miles in length, and diverges from the main line at Lymington Junction, a mile west of Brockenhurst, where also the old and new lines to Bournemouth diverge, going respectively via Ringwood and Sway. From the junction, the line is single throughout, crossing heathland for some distance, and then threading its way through woodland to emerge at Lymington Town Station, where the original building was opposite the signalbox. A large goods yard is provided, and an engine shed with accommodation for the branch engine. The line continues beside the Lymington River, and after passing a supposedly haunted culvert, and the wide level crossing for cars using the ferry, it reaches the Pier station. Special authority is given for motor trains running between Brockenhurst and Lymington Town to run without a guard, one of the Town Station staff performing this duty on those trains that run to the pier. Lymington Pier was rebuilt in 1938, when the car ferry was first introduced, and the slipway was extended at Admiralty expense in 1942.
Although the first task of the L.S.W.R.

train from Lymington Pier. The return school train leaves Brockenhurst at 4.1 p.m., headed by an 0-6-0 tender first, while on the rear of the train is the motor train and the Drummond tank. This unusual arrangement permits the latter to work the 4.18 p.m. train from Lymington Pier. The daily freight train is worked to Lymington Town by a Drummond 4-4-0 tender first; 6ft. 7in. driving wheels are little suited to the shunting it must perform there! This engine returns light to Brockenhurst to work the 4.8 p.m. Portsmouth passenger, the school train engine working the return freight trip.
On summer Saturdays, there are a number of through trains over the branch, the first of which leaves Lymington Pier at 10.35 a.m., its Drummond 4-4-0 engine

went to Portsmouth, Cowes and Totland Bay, as well as to Yarmouth. The Totland Bay service survived until 1927, since when services have been concentrated on Yarmouth.
The earliest known vessel on this route was the Solent, which plied to and from the Isle of Wight for several years before the railway came to Lymington. She was joined in 1858 by the Red Lion, purchased second-hand from the Admiralty to deal with the expected extra traffic. Both these vessels were small wooden paddlers, as was the new steamer built at Lymington in 1863, which replaced the Solent and acquired that vessel's name. The Red Lion did not long outlast its former consort,‘ being replaced in 1866 by the Newcastle-built

Mayflower. The second Solent and the Mayflower were taken over by the L.S.W.R. in 1884, and were joined in 1893 by the Lymington, built at Southampton. The dimensions of the ships used on this service have always been restricted by the shallowness of the Lymington River, although the Lymington was somewhat larger than her predecessors, and was the first steel vessel built for this service. The Solent survived until 1901, and the following year a third vessel of that name was built, which worked until 1948. The Mayflower was sold in 1910. In 1927, the Southern Railway introduced the handsome Freshwater, built at Cowes, and the last of the conventional type of paddle steamers on this route. Two years later the Lymington was sold for conversion to a houseboat.
As far back as the 1850s the Lymington vessels ran with "tow-boats" attached, conveying carriages and cattle (and later motor cars) to the Isle of Wight. After 1938, this practice ceased, for in that year the new t.s.m.v. Lymington appeared, a double-ended vessel of car ferry type, equipped with Voth-Schneider propulsion devised to make her more easily manouvrable in the confined reaches of the Lymington river. After some teething troubles she settled down on the service, and could be operated with less trouble than the paddle-boats, with their string of as many as four loaded barges. She became disrespectfully referred to locally as the “Crab” on

account of her extraordinary manoeuvrability.
The latest shipping development was the introduction, in 1948, of the Farringford, virtually a paddle version of Lymington, but larger and with increased covered accommodation. She is popular with passengers as an all-weather vessel, but rather the reverse with yachtsmen as she has at times proved somewhat unwieldy, and certainly takes up a good deal of space in the narrow channels. The Cinderella of the present trio is the Freshwater, which is laid up in the winter months, when one or other of her ugly sisters is sufficient to cope with the service. It is doubtful whether the promoters of the Lymington Railway could have foreseen that it would ever take three such vessels (large by their standards) to deal with the summer traffic, which has considerably increased in recent years.
Nowadays there is a frequent service of trains on the branch, many of which have London connections at Brockenhurst and steamer connections at Lymington. Indeed, it is now evident that the early optimism of the directors proved wholly justified, and the present prosperity of the borough of Lymington is in no small way due to the success of its railway.
In conclusion, the author would like to make grateful acknowledgement to the many local people, both railway officials and otherwise, who readily gave assistance in the preparation of this article.